I had a letter this morning telling me off for not having a TV licence. The thing is, I do have one so I called the number on the letter to let them know. This led to a very frustrating experience.…

I’ve touched on the subject of spitting tics before, usually to say they’re happening but that I don’t really want to write about them. My instinct with tics that I find distressing is to ignore them, but this time I’m going to fight that instinct and write about spitting.…

I’ve been doing a lot of deep breathing in the last week. This isn’t because I’ve been particularly stressed or particularly energetic. The fact is, I don’t know why I’m doing it, but I suspect it may be a tic.

Last week I had a bit of a cold and towards the end of it I started drawing breath deeply, quickly and regularly.…

Yesterday I had one of my regular hospital appointments with my consultant neurologist. This time it was dominated by a discussion of something that I haven’t yet written about yet – it’s what I call ‘locking up’.

Since I started taking a new muscle relaxant drug – baclofen – my ticcing fits have generally been a bit less frequent and much less intense.…

Four Sundays ago I wrote about being in floods of tears because of the problems I was having with organising the rota of my carers. And every Sunday since seemed to have been jinxed by sadness. But today’s been different – it’s been lovely and I feel very relaxed as a result.…

For non-Twitter users ‘#FF’ stands for ‘Follow Friday’. Every Friday this hashtag can be seen all over Twitter as people suggest other tweeters they think everyone should follow.

I very rarely use #FF but this week I’d like to introduce everyone to my tic-tweeting sidekick, @TicBot.…

The other day I wrote about how my tics had livened up an evening meal at the castle. Tonight it happened again. While I was enjoying a meal with Poppy and Leftwing Idiot I ticced a series of questions with a single theme – edginess:

“Who’s more edgy, Lion King or Barbara Windsor?”…

‘If a bin had kidnapped the bear you loved and to save it you had not to drink alcohol, would you drink alcohol-free red wine?’

I’m not sure exactly how, but this is what I managed to ask Poppy tonight over dinner.…

This evening Leftwing Idiot was asking me if I knew someone called Nick who might or might not have been a friend of a friend. When he failed to remember Nick’s last name with any certainty, Tourettes stepped in and sang one possible but unlikely alternative:

“Casablanca Sheep Dog Fairytale.”…

Despite the stillness of the snow outside, this morning didn’t get off to a calm start at all. I annoyed Leftwing Idiot by bombarding him with questions as soon as he’d woken up and walked into the living room. Because I knew I’d irritated him I got upset and my tics overreacted.…